On numerous online forums for JavaScript and DHTML, the majority of questions begin with "How do I...?" This new Cookbook provides the answers. After reading thousands of forum threads over the years, author and scripting pioneer Danny Goodman has compiled a list of problems that frequently vex scripters of various experience levels. He has now applied state-of-the-art ECMA and W3C DOM standards and used best practices to create this extensive collection of practical recipes that can bring your web pages to life.The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is all about adding value to the content of a web page. The book focuses on practical and sensible applications of scripting, rather than flying images and gratuitous color changes. For every problem Goodman addresses, there's a solution or "recipe"--a focused piece of code that web developers can insert directly into their applications. Yet, rather than just cut-and-paste code, you also get explanations of how and why the code works, so you can learn to adapt the problem-solving techniques to your designs.The recipes range from simple tasks, such as manipulating strings and validating dates in JavaScript, to entire libraries that demonstrate complex tasks, such as cross-browser positioning of HTML elements and sorting tables. This book contains over 150 recipes on the following topics:

Working with interactive forms and style sheets

Presenting user-friendly page navigation

Creating dynamic content

Producing visual effects for stationary content

Positioning HTML elements

Managing browser windows and multiple frames

This book is the ideal companion to O'Reilly's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide and Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference. If you own either of these books, the JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is a must.

has been writing about personal computers and consumer electronics since the late 1970s. In 2001, he celebrated 20 years as a free lance writer and programmer, having published hundreds of magazine articles, several commercial software products, and three dozen computer books. Through the years, his most popular book titles on HyperCard, AppleScript, JavaScript, and Dynamic HTML have covered programming environments that are both accessible to non-professionals yet powerful enough to engage experts. His JavaScript Bible book is now in its fourth edition. To keep up to date on the needs of web developers for his recent books, Danny is also a programming consultant to some of the industry's top intranet development groups and corporations. His expertise in implementing sensible cross-browser client-side scripting solutions is in high demand and allows him to, in his words, "get code under my fingernails while solving real-world problems." Danny was born in Chicago, Illinois during the Truman Administration. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in Classical Antiquity from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He moved to California in 1983 and lives in a small San Francisco area coastal community, where he alternates views between computer screens and the Pacific Ocean.

Review:

"...does for web scripting and dynamic HTML what the best cookbooks do for food...The best cookbooks distil the wisdom of an experienced and skilled master - and this is precisely what Danny Goodman does here. " TechBook Report